In a decision that will haunt the annals of Tottenham Hotspur’s turbulent season, goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky was hauled off after just 17 minutes on his Champions League debut, having single-handedly gifted Atletico Madrid two goals in a catastrophic start to the round-of-16 first leg at the Metropolitano Stadium.
Interim manager Igor Tudor made the audacious call to start the 22-year-old Czech shot-stopper ahead of established number one Guglielmo Vicario, a gamble that backfired with staggering speed and brutality.
Making his first appearance for Spurs since October, Kinsky’s night descended into a personal nightmare inside the opening quarter of an hour.
The calamity began in the sixth minute. With the stadium still settling, Kinsky attempted to play the ball out from the back but slipped on the damp surface, his miscued clearance falling directly to Atletico’s Marcos Llorente, who slotted home the opener.
After Micky van de Ven’s slip allowed Antoine Griezmann to make it 2-0, Kinsky was involved in another error just a minute later. In the 15th minute, he again miscontrolled the ball under pressure, presenting it to Julián Álvarez, who walked the ball into an empty net to make it 3-0.
Igor Tudor had seen enough. On the 17-minute mark, the Tottenham bench signaled for Vicario to enter the fray, ending Kinsky’s torrid evening. As the dejected goalkeeper trudged off the pitch, he was met with ironic applause from the jubilant Atletico Madrid supporters.
The decision to sacrifice a goalkeeper so early in a match of this magnitude sent shockwaves through the commentary boxes.
Former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, could barely comprehend the scene. “Wow, wow, wow,” Robinson exclaimed. “I have never seen that on a football pitch. What a huge call from the manager Igor Tudor. Yes, the goalkeeper was at fault but that is confidence destroying for Antonin Kinsky”.
The sentiment was echoed by another former Spurs keeper, Joe Hart, who was on punditry duty for TNT Sports. “I’ve been trying to make sense of it. My heart is absolutely broken for him,” Hart said. “He had a horrible 14 minutes, that slip and the third goal. I don’t know what to say. I am just heartbroken for the lad. This Tottenham team is all over the place”.
The substitution did little to stem the tide immediately, with Robin Le Normand adding a fourth for Atletico just minutes after Vicario’s introduction. Pedro Porro managed to pull a goal back for the shell-shocked visitors, but the damage had been done in a surreal opening 26 minutes.